Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett
Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and her Venezuela counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, met on Friday, September 30 in Trinidad to discuss Guyana’s applying to the United Nations to extend its continental shelf, a move which has unnerved Caracas.
The UN Good Officer, Professor Norman Girvan, was invited to the meeting, a release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry said. Earlier this week, the Venezuelan government said a new request by Guyana to the United Nations to expand the limits of its continental shelf from 200 to 350 nautical miles constituted an “irregular situation”, and chastised Georgetown for not informing Venezuela directly.
Guyana said it was taking the necessary actions to preserve the right that assists it with respect to the projection of its seafront.
Venezuela said it received, on September 7, 2011, the official notification that Guyana had lodged a presentation on the outer limits of the continental shelf of Guyana, within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which this country belongs to, with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).
No prejudgement
The presentation “does not prejudge” the limits between the two countries, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement, while adding later that Venezuela “manifest(ed) its concern upon realising that the government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana did not inform it beforehand of this action, in spite of existing fluid mechanisms of communication, like the Good Officer of the Office of the UN Secretary General, or the permanent bilateral dialogue the authorities of both countries keep”. Guyana responded on Tuesday, September 27, refuting Venezuela’s statement, saying that since 2009 it submitted its claim for the extension of the continental shelf to the Venezuelan Embassy here under cover of a note verbale. The embassy, the release said, was served a copy of the preliminary information which was submitted to the secretary general of the United Nations.
“That document constitutes the executive summary of Guyana’s full submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, except for the fact that it has adjusted coordinates for the outer limits of the extended continental shelf based on additional seismic data that were obtained after May 2009.”
“The government of Guyana wishes to state that, as was made pellucid in Guyana’s submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, Guyana’s submission of information and data pursuant to Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is without prejudice to any future maritime delimitation exercise with neighbouring states. The communiqué from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela recognises that fact, since it declared that the submission of the Republic of Guyana does not prejudge eventual maritime delimitation between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
Guyana also reiterated its interest in continued harmonious relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and anticipates that since Guyana’s submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is without prejudice to future maritime delimitation exercises with neighbouring states, whether within or beyond 200 nautical miles, this issue would not be allowed to adversely affect the exceptionally good relations that exist between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela today, the release said.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez reported on Thursday, September 29 that the governments of Venezuela and Guyana agreed to handle their border dispute at the highest level and in a very responsible manner.
During a telephone conversation with state- run TV channel Venezolana de Television (VTV), Chávez said his government is conducting very intensive work and will not let “some sectors there (Guyana) or here (Venezuela) create internal conflicts. We will not let that happen”. He said that Venezuela now has one of the strongest positions on international affairs in its history. “I assume, with responsibility and without subordination to any foreign power, the tasks that people have vested in me as head of state,” Chávez said. “Guyana has finally joined the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), but of course we defend our national interests first, and therefore we agreed to handle this issue very responsibly,” he added.
Chávez said his government has been working very hard in its foreign policy.
